TMT (Adkins) vs Pressmech

[JMugs]

I use pressmech and had it built to my needs. I try to keep as much as possible in the UK. Very pleased with it.
Janners.

[pisquee]

We have had a few presses come through our premises through the years, from PressMech, Adkins, Insta and Jarin. We had a period of a sideline of buying in Presses which were being sold way below their market value, mostly snapping them up on Ebay. Some of them we used ourselves, some we flogged on straight away as they were in good condition, and some we fixed and sold one, some are still in the garage waiting for me to have time to get them fixed up too!
The presses we wouldn't sell on, because we liked them so much were the PressMechs - when we bought the first one, we didn't know who'd made it, but it was being sold cheap and looked interesting. It took a lot of research to track down whos press it actually was. We work them hard, and when the heating element went in the first one, we had to use one of our other presses, and going through the pile of presses we had at the time, and nothing came close. What stuck me the PressMech was I emailed them about the press no longer heating up, and within 5 minutes had a call back from Dickie (essentially Mr PressMech) who talked me through over the phone, while I did it, how to take it apart, where to put my multimeter to test where the fault was, and had a new element in the post that day.
The last premises we were at had terrible electrics, which were always tripping out, and this didn't do the heating element much good obviously, but I knew how to get it apart to replace the element and wasn't worried . Around this time we bought a 2nd one as we liked them so much.
We've (well, I've, the wife isn't much interested in taking presses apart, just using them!) taken all the above listed makes of press apart to one degree or another, phoned their tech support lines, and looked at some of the repair manuals, and I prefer the PressMech for the ease and speed in which you can get into them.
Aside from this, they heat up well, are easy to use, and very well built (although all the above press makes are built like tanks and weight a tonne - the Jarin's being the exception on the weight front)
Note: When I refer to Adkins, I am talking about what is recognisable as classic Adkins models from the Beta and Omega ranges, too much of the new Studio range look like rebranded chinese presses.
The other thing about the PressMech is I did spot an old Adkins on Ebay around 6 months ago IIRC that was the same design as the PressMechs. No idea what the story is with that though, but I will ask Dickie about it next time I get in touch.

[arthur.daley]

Thanks for that Pisquee

I spent a very pleasant and sociable evening with our tall friend last night and am now even more torn between Pressmech and the TMT/Adkins. I think I may be worrying over nothing and that either of them will do an admirable job -the Pressmech has the edge on versatility but TMT/Adkins is much cheaper.

sigh

[pisquee]

Comparing like for like (38x50cm presses, ex delivery, ex VAT)...
PressMech A3 £895 (from NovaChrome)
Adkins Beta Maxi £895 (from Xpres)
The 10% discount for DSF premium members at Xpress makes the Adkins a little cheaper

[Justin]

I'm a big fan of Adkins but always use the older press rather than the new one. Newer ones have the darker platen whilst older are all one colour. in my opinion/experience the older ones were better built but the newer ones are still excellent.

I was offered a PressMech a while ago for test/review purposes but the company stopped responding when i tried to take them up on the offer! The presses do look very interesting and appear very well built although I assume the timers etc. are off the shelf rather than custom built for the presses? Appreciate all the comments about these being easy to fix but personally I'd sooner have a press that rarely if ever needs to be fixed! lol.

[pisquee]

I'm not saying that the PressMechs go wrong a lot, it's more that we've tended to pick up presses that are sold cheap, have faults, need repairing etc, and the ones we use we use hard (we don't just do standard/normal sublimation, with some of our work being well in excess of the normal 200 degrees, and using a huge pressure, and running for a full day) under normal conditions I am sure they'll be fine.
Personally I like to know how things work and why, so that when they inevitably go wrong and need something doing I can do it. The PressMechs do use standard off the shelf timers and temp control units, housed in a nice module on top of the press, with two quick release screws to open up, if you need to whip em out and replace. Our metre wide rotary press also uses an off the shelf temp controller, and that would have cost more than 10 times as much as a PressMech or Adkins when it was new. Am sure plenty of of industrial equipment use standard control units.

[Justin]

I'm not criticising them for using these timers, if anything I think it's a good thing as they're easier and cheaper to replace

[arthur.daley]

Comparing like for like (38x50cm presses, ex delivery, ex VAT)...
PressMech A3 £895 (from NovaChrome)
Adkins Beta Maxi £895 (from Xpres)
The 10% discount for DSF premium members at Xpress makes the Adkins a little cheaper

If I were going to get a Pressmech it would have to be the Bag Press (direct from Pressmech) - so versatile but its £1250 plus VAT (


Arthur

[arthur.daley]

The PressMechs do use standard off the shelf timers and temp control units, housed in a nice module on top of the press, with two quick release screws to open up

I am with you on this one. The Pressmech definitely isn't sleek and sexy but better than that it is very easily fixed should anything go belly up. Using well established industry standard components that are easily changed can only be a good thing. Eye candy it ain't but once you see past that its a cracking piece of kit.


Arthur

[pisquee]

It's an industrial piece of machinery, and doesn't need to look anything, as long as it does the job well, which it does.